Patna: Replacing Mahatma Gandhi’s picture with that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Khadi and Village Industries Commission’s (KVIC) calender and diary is an “insult” to the Father of the Nation and a case of “sedition”, RJD president Lalu Yadav said on Saturday.
“It is very unfortunate that the picture of Mahatma Gandhi has been replaced with that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Khadi Udyog’s calender. Modi cannot be even an iota of his (Mahatma’s) personality. I strongly condemn the incident which is an insult to the Father of The Nation,” Lalu said.
He was talking to reporters at his residence where he hosted ‘Dahi-Chura’ feast on Makar Sankranti.
Stating that the act of replacing Mahatma’s picture with that of PM Modi’s on calender has made a case of “sedition”, Lalu said that people must protest as it insulted Mahatma Gandhi.
It was Narendra Modi, after taking oath as PM, who went to Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial and paid his tributes to him but now he and his party were trying to indulge in such “bad acts”, he said.
“Hey Ram! Total insult to the Father of Nation by PM…RSS gang killed Gandhi Ji & now hell bent on usurping and killing his ideology & thoughts,” Lalu had tweeted earlier.
A controversy had broken out when KVIC published its calendar and diary with a photo of PM Modi weaving khadi on a charkha (spinning wheel). Normally, Mahatma Gandhi’s picture with spinning wheel were published on the calender.
“There is no such rule or tradition that we can publish only Gandhiji’s photo on our calendar or on the cover of diary. His (Gandhiji’s) photo was not there in 2002, 2005, 2011, 2013 and 2016,” KVIC chairman V K Saxena had said.
Talking about the grievances being raised by army and para-military personnel, the RJD chief asked the government to sort out the difficulties being faced by jawans by bringing improvement in system and institutions.
“It is because of them (soldiers who guard on borders) that we sleep in our house. The government should have a proper study on the problems and difficulties being faced by them,” he said, adding that no jawan should be subjected to punishment in the name of discipline.
On demonetisation, Lalu said that the problems being faced by the common people are the same. Nothing has changed after two months, he said and dared PM Modi to tell the country as how much blackmoney has the government been able to catch.
PTI